Office Temporary 5G Solution SIM CARD Router or Other Options - Help Needed

KinG3o0o on 28/08/2023 - 17:47
Last edited 28/08/2023 - 17:47

Hi good people of ozbargain

we are moving office next week and NBN is not going to be able to give me a time line on when our enterprise line will be installed,

so I need a temporary solution for our staff to work while we wait for NBN to do their thing.

we have about 8 staff.

the current plan is to buy a sim-only internet plan with 5g network such as belong $79 400gb plan and find a simcard router to share among the office users.

but I cant find a 5g sim card router, so I am hoping the good people here can point me in the right direction.

i am also open to any other suggestions

max budget 300 a month

and no the staff using their own phone for hot spot is not an option, they said they are not willing to do so for next month or so.

thanks

edit : WFH is not an option for all of them, as we are a pharma company some of them will always need lab access so around 8-10 people will always be in the office.

Those who are able to WFH will be WFH

Internet Mobile Broadband Plan

Comments

  • 87percent on 28/08/2023 - 17:49
    +1

    Can’t staff just WFH instead?

  • KinG3o0o on 28/08/2023 - 17:51

    forgot to mention we are a pharma company, so they need access to the lab, unfortunately, it's not possible for all of them to WFH
    those who can are already WFH, but there will always be around 8 -10 people in the office

  • djsweet on 28/08/2023 - 17:53
    +1
    • Pay their phone bill
    • Buy them a second sim
    • buy a 5g hotspot

    You can’t have looked that hard… https://www.telstra.com.au/internet/mobile-broadband/netgear…

    • GordonD on 28/08/2023 - 19:43
      +1

      If the 8-10 users were spread around and they all had wifi on their devices, a 5G hotspot would be the simplest solution.

    • Chaddy on 29/08/2023 - 22:23

      Any decent business grade provider should of given you a router with a Sim card already inserted.
      Or should at least give you the option to buy a 4G or 5G backup solution depending on the service location and the network availability.

  • GordonD on 28/08/2023 - 19:10
    +3

    I use a 5G phone USB tethered to a router.

    The phone is an Oppo A54 5G with a Woolworths SIM in it, which uses Telstra the same as Belong. Plenty of other phones would do the same job.

    The USB tether to the router keeps the phone charged as well as providing the data connection.

    The router provides wired ethernet directly to some devices, and through a switch to others. Plus it provides wifi to a printer that only has wifi. The router is a Gl.iNet Slate (AR-750S) travel router, because I knew that supports USB tethering. And it is fast enough to handle the 250 Mb/s that Belong's 400 GB/m data plan limits you to. There are other products from the same company, and from others, that also do.

    And when you don't need it any longer you've got a perfectly good 5G phone for someone in the company to use, and a pretty cheap router than its no big deal to just throw away.

    It runs continuously, 24/7, without any hiccups. I tried it with wifi tethering from the phone to the router, and it needed rebooting every couple of days.

    Technically speaking you don't need the router. Android phones support connection by ethernet directly. You just need a USB to ethernet adapter, and the phone can be both the 5G modem, and the router for your LAN, as well as providing wifi services. You just need to connect it by ethernet to a switch. But I have failed to find a USB to ethernet adapter supported by Android that also keeps the phone charged up.

  • AndyC1 on 28/08/2023 - 19:10

    First does 5G work in the new place? Which network is it? What was the signal strength like? How fast was the DL on the 5G phone?

    • KinG3o0o on 28/08/2023 - 21:19

      yes, its in Macquarie park, im literally next to Optus HQ

      • AndyC1 on 29/08/2023 - 19:46

        Good luck as you will need it.

  • Platinumtelecom on 28/08/2023 - 19:49

    4G should be enough to get you through. Unfortunately 5G is often not as stable indoors. Do you rely on the connection for your business phones?

    • Platinumtelecom on 28/08/2023 - 19:52

      NetComm NL19MESH will do a good job with 4G. You will just need to get into the settings and setup the apn, but its very well explained on how to do it. There is 1 left on Amazon for $145

  • Stopback on 28/08/2023 - 19:56

    Buy some 4g SIM cards then share them hotspot with people.

    Bring some burner phones.

    Don't need 5g.

  • Cerb on 28/08/2023 - 20:59
    +1

    Just been through this myself for our office (useless nbn). Couple options that Aussie Broadband provided to us was:
    A. If the building has had adsl before, can relatively quickly turn on a basic 100/40 adsl plan and just put in a basic adsl modem of our choice from Officworks. They were happy to do this free until Enterprise went in and then convert over
    B. Or provide a number of sims with data that could be used for staff.

    However what i did though was purchase outright one of those Telstra 5g netgear modem, enabled a spare sim with Telstra and had a chunk of data loaded on it and away we went as staff needed to work on LAN system so individual tethering was not going to cut it. 5g supported over 20 staff, plus a bunch of other stuff for about a week - But you will chew through data like no tomorrow as a warning, but we averaged speeds of around 250 to 300mb with ease.

    • KinG3o0o on 28/08/2023 - 21:20

      yaikes, i thought 400gb was enough for 8-10.

      i'll look into tihs

    • 87percent on 28/08/2023 - 22:06

      ADSL plan with 100/40??

    • Chaddy on 29/08/2023 - 22:30
      +1

      You can't get 100/40MBPS on ADSL, that's an NBN FTTN plan. You can't actually buy ADSL anymore in a lot of cases its classed as legacy.
      Technically its a VDSL connection slightly different technology the AussieBB rep should of known that and shouldn't be confusing terms though it is ABB we're talking about support is a bit hit and miss.
      Happens with every company once they get large enough.
      Why not just go with a basic TC4 100 /40 connection anyway? should be fine for 8 staff unless your uploading huge files.?

  • KinG3o0o on 28/08/2023 - 21:20
    +2

    hi guys, i think the 5g phone into wifi router route might be a winner!

    • Chaddy on 29/08/2023 - 22:37

      What provider did you go with that doesn't provide a redundant connection for a business grade service?

  • mitt on 28/08/2023 - 23:47

    You dont need 5g unless your staff are going to be downloading multiple multi-gigabyte files or streaming video all the time. Even then 5g reception can be spotty indoors so position your router right if you do this.

    The best 4g routers on a budget I have found are the huawei b818-263 routers that used to be used by optus but can also be unbranded. Expect $100 second hand if you need one in a hurry. They are cat19 routers so they will do solid throughput on 4g & are network unlocked. Just put whatever sim of choice you want in there.

  • ozwog05 on 29/08/2023 - 18:48

    Thinking outside the square a bit here.. any chance you have a router at the current premises with 4G/5G failover? If so, you may be able to take it to the new premises to use for the interim.

  • djsweet on 30/08/2023 - 11:29

    max budget 300 a month

    Seems low considering you're already spending at least 70k per month on wages for those 8 employees alone.

    • KinG3o0o on 03/09/2023 - 22:50

      because thats what we are paying now for our enterprise line (pending built !

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